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DEAR READER, ONCE AGAIN the roadblocks of life have thrown up their "Use Caution" warnings and the days are filled with detours and distractions. What I mean to say is, this blog is no longer trickling toward the cliff's edge; it's gone right over it! However, with this current posting I see it has caught on a jutting rock. It appears to be clutching that rock for dear life, and I've rushed to the rescue with an olla podrida.*

Buoyed up by my fast and furious meal of a week or so ago, I got to patting myself on the back and pondering my acting ability (alas, debacles so easily forgotten!) Instead of racing to the store for ingredients, today I pulled a block of frozen ground pork from the freezer and contemplated what marvelous mere-minutes-long miracle might "beef up" (apologies to the pig) my resume.



Now, lacking a microwave is a great disadvantage to nimble food preparation, but my small-sized food processor helped to speed things up! I tossed that block of meat into a casserole dish and set it to baking while I put that processor to use on some garlic bread. Viola! Crumbs sat eagerly waiting to be poured atop the pork when it came from the oven about twenty minutes later!






Next I processed a big  sweet onion.




Off course, I knew I needed eggs, and I didn't even have to go and beg the chickens to "process" them for me!
(Those biddies are always busy! I've got plenty of eggs in my fridge) It took about a half minute to add two of them to the coming-along meatloaf.  This was followed by a nice hefty helping of salt, herbs and seasonings.

And a dash of black pepper.










Well, then I studied that conglomeration of foodstuffs in the casserole dish and tried to determine the most efficient and effective (and speedy) way of enhancing their co-existence.

There was only a short pause as I contemplated this.

I discovered, Dear Reader, that a hand with a thumb and four fingers is an excellent tool for this job.

 All I had to do next was clean up the neighborhood around the edge of the casserole and pop it into the oven for another twenty minutes.

(Now, twenty minutes is more than enough time to cook collards and quinoa, Dear Copy-cat Chef, [or a green and a grain of your choice]. One can set the table at one's leisure and still have time for some lovely pre-dinner lolling!)

And, oh-pleasing-palatable-porcine , was that piggy meatloaf good! The yard man agreed, and he didn't just say so in so many words, but added some piggy noises!
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* All those ingredients that went into the meatloaf--
I'm afraid there's no time to mix up an olla podrida, Reader Dear,
(though that was my full intention)!